Creative Pros Can Learn Skills or Teach Courses on Skillshare

Do you need to expand your photography, design, writing, illustration, or entrepreneurship skills? Or: Can you teach any photography, design, or technology skills that might make life easier or more creatively fulfilling for others? Either way, you might benefit from Skillshare.

Launched in 2011, Skillshare is a global learning community that offers a low-cost way to learn real-world skills from anyone, anywhere. All classes are focused on skills that you can use immediately, either in your career or on personal projects.

Teach

If you have knowledge to share, you can promote your own local, in-person classes on Skillshare. You can set your own fee for the classes your list on Skillshare, keeping in mind that most Skillshare classes cost around $20 per ticket. Skillshare’s goal is to keep the classes affordable and accessible to as many people as possible.

If you can teach a course in photography, film, design, illustration, fashion, or technology, you can apply to teach an online class. The classes can’t be promotional and must involve the completion of a hands-on project that enables students to show what they have learned.

The online classes are still in beta, so only a limited number of applications are being accepted. But the Skillshare approach looks promising.

In November, 2012, Mattan Griffel became the first Skillshare teacher to earn $25,000 in ticket sales for one online course. He teaches students how to code, using Ruby on Rails, one of the hottest programming frameworks for building websites. By the end of the five-week course, each student must use Ruby on Rails to build a basic web app.

Learn

When looking to refresh or expand your own skills, you can find new classes listed on Skillshare every day. Business topics include everything from entrepreneurship, website design, public speaking, and digital-marketing to graphic design fundamentals, visual storytelling, coding, and app store optimization. For a relief from the daily grind, enroll in a Skillshare course on cooking, gardening, or wine tasting.

More Details

Skillshare is based in New York City, but Skillshare classes can happen anywhere. Local classes enable students to meet their teachers live and in person. Online classes happen on Skillshare.com and attract students from anywhere in the world.

The online teachers provide guidance, resources, and interactive lectures and office hours. Students can work together, share questions and ideas, and exchange feedback throughout the duration of the class.